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July 18, 2012

Prints

Here are few of my old articles for your perusal:

Fingerprint
Facts

It is obvious that technology
nowadays is so advanced and develops so swiftly that one can’t even get a hold
of it. Every single day, discoveries
upon discoveries, theories upon theories, ideas so fresh and innovative are
produced and resulted. All of these are
geared towards a beneficial end which making our complex lives here in earth
more easy.

Various breakthroughs are evident
even to the most complex and difficult ones.
Again the word and the idea of a once perceived product of the mind as
being impossible can rarely be heard in our current situation. One cannot escape the idea of having a more
“livable” life just by simply glancing at these technologies and wonder on what
will the world look like a decade from now but how will it appear tomorrow.

But with all these ideas of ours
coming into reality with the help of great minds and technology, people must
take into consideration and realize that all these come from simple, basic and
elementary things and ideas that somewhat triggered to the development of a
more advance and suitable one. This
mindset should be present in all aspects.
History perhaps is the one that should be present in trying to regard
them. Let us take a particular current
breakthrough that the world is being proud of right now. Consider the latest in forensic science for
example. And this time plunge ourselves
to a particular subject…fingerprints. It
may sound so basic but a lot of things have already been done and a lot of information
about fingerprints has been written and stored and what better way to
appreciate it than to study a bit of it and learn some facts about
fingerprints.

I.
Meaning and nature. We
would be confronted initially of the meaning of the word “fingerprint” as a
start. A very helpful and handy
dictionary would instantly tell us that “fingerprint” is a noun that means as
that impression given by a fingertip on any surface. A deeper meaning of it is that is that
impression or mark that is left by the ridges or creases of a finger, palm or
just about any part of the body. We may
opt to use palm prints, foot prints or any print that emanated from the body,
but in this case, it will particularly be the fingerprint that our discussion
will focus on.

If you look closely, our fingers as
well as our palms (which are closely connected by the way) are composed of
ridges. These ridges are interconnected
on our fingers and palms in such a way that these ridges are very helpful in
creating friction in order for us to grasp things easily when it landed on a
surface. These ridges are known also to
participate by generating the needed vibrations and signals to our sensory
nerves.

The impression, the mark, or the
print is made by the secretion of mostly water from our eccrine glands which
are natural. The presence of
fingerprints is also attributable to inks or any other chemical and
contaminants applied on the fingers for the ridges to absorb and transferred to
a smooth surface.

II.
Types of fingerprint.

Latent prints. – According to forensic
science experts, a latent fingerprint is that type of fingerprint that is accidentally
done on any surface. It is in this
regard that said fingerprint may in one way or another, hidden or invisible
depending on the amount of pressure, kind of surface and other underlying
factors. These types of fingerprints are
often considered by forensic science experts as hard to identify for most of
these types are unclear, smudged and distorted in nature.

Patent prints. – These are the most common
types of fingerprints. These prints are
mostly clear in nature and can easily be identified. These marks are commonly made in the deposits
of the creases done by separate materials such as water, ink and oil. These types of fingerprints are clearly evident
that most of it can be photographed instead of lifting for identification.

Plastic prints. – These types of prints
are also similar to the patent type only in the manner of impression. Plastic prints are those prints that are
impressed or deposited into a material which is capable of retaining the
impressed ridges. A clear example of
this type is that print left after touching a melted candle or some prints that
are left on some grease on a car.

Today, quick and accurate identification and
acquisition of fingerprints are the foundations of some of the state of the art
technology in the field. A fingerprint
can be easily identified in a matter of minutes with the Automated Fingerprint
Identification system (AFIS). This
procedure also allows the transfer of prints from one place to another as a
coded or encrypted data.

Acquisition on the other hand would
require the use of print scanners that allows one to either touch or roll your
fingers on the scanning area. These
scanners usually take into account the physical differences of the ridges on
the print. Some fingerprint acquisition
scanners would rely most on the captured ridges presented on a certain amount
of impression given by a certain subject.
These types of scanners sometimes fail since changes in the amount of
impression of a single print can vary depending on said factor. What the technology experts focuses on right
now is on the acquisition and identification of prints as based on the captured
ridges. It is through the different
patterns that these ridges are presented that makes a print distinct from the
other.

III.
Patterns. - Our fingerprint experts say that there are three
basic fingerprint patterns. They are the
Arch, the Loop and the Whorl. There are more complex sub-classifications of
these basic patterns depending on the position and the direction of the
hand. Loops may either be radial or
ulnar in nature. There are also
sub-classifications on an Arch if it is either plain arches or a tented arch. Whorls also have its share as there are
accidental, double-loop and pocket-loop whorls.

IV.
Interesting and other fun facts about fingerprints.

·As many have already known this
fact about fingerprints, it is interesting to consider reiterating the fact
that there are absolutely NO identical fingerprints. It is said that the ridges that form largely
of our prints develops as early as in the first few weeks of the fetus stages
and each is individually develop that even an identical twin doesn’t posses the
same fingerprints;

·It is possible that relatives
do have same fingerprint patterns;

·You can outgrow your shoes but
not your prints as they will stay the same no matter how old you are;

·In order to seal or close their
business transactions, ancient Babylonians used fingerprints in their tablets;

·Brothers Alfred and Albert
Stratton of 1905 were the first victims of fingerprinting evidence. They were convicted of murder;

·Fingerprints are considered to
be the very basis of criminal history of every police agency;

·Fingerprints are believed to
have outnumbered the DNA in the identification process with regards to crime
solving and other incident-related cases;

·That the fingerprint database
of the FBI is ten times larger than their DNA’s;

·You can’t change or alter your
fingerprints by cutting, burning or scraping them. Its pattern will remain the same as a new
skin is developed;

·And it is thru excessive damage
of the skin that our prints can be deranged;

·Koala’s fingerprints can be
mistakenly identified from that of a human being’s;

·It was Sir William Hershel who
first used the fingerprints (1858) as a mean of identification;

·The FBI’s fingerprint database
is the largest in the world;

·Because they (FBI) receives
34,000 fingerprint cards every day;

·It was Mark twain who first used
the fingerprinting evidence to solve a crime in one of his fictional novels,
“Life on the Mississippi”
(1883);

· Birds do have
fingerprints. They are evident in their
eggs that they law;

·Experts say that an Egyptian
mummy still has very clear fingerprints even if they were embalmed for a
handful of years ago;

·A cat’s nose has ridges like
that of human and is capable of producing prints;

·As humans get identified
through their fingerprints, the dogs are by their nose prints;

·As the fingerprinting wasn’t used
then for identifying criminals, the crime busters instead used tattoos;

The way we see it and as discussed
above, fields like the forensic sciences have long benefited from this
fingerprinting phenomenon that our early ancestors used to do. These has enabled to solve more crimes and
thus aided in the identification aspects and issues of human beings. It is also interesting to consider its
intense effect on the society in developing more ways to make our lives simpler
and easier. What better way to develop
something and enhance the same to make it more beneficial and helpful for the
society and the environment. Such things
as fingerprints are small and minute things we don’t normally see but these are
the basic structural basis of our being distinct from the others. And it is indeed, a huge factor in
considering our true identity in this ever-growing and developing society of
ours.